Virginia Cowles OBE was born in Vermont in 1910. She gravitated to journalism in her youth to earn her living after the death of her mother, writing features for Hearst Newspapers. She became a trailblazing war correspondent for the Sunday Times, reporting from Civil War Spain in 1937 before covering wartime Europe for the BBC and NBC. Cowles wrote up her testimony in Looking for Trouble, a bestseller on publication in 1941, and later reported from North Africa as special assistant to the American Ambassador in London. In 1945, Cowles married Aidan Crawley, a British journalist who had been a fighter pilot and spent years in a German POW camp, later becoming a politician and filmmaker; they had three children. As well as writing a play with Martha Gellhorn, Cowles was also a historian and biographer, whose subjects included Winston Churchill and the Romanov, Rothschild, and Astor families. She was killed in an automobile accident in France in 1983.

This sensational 1941 memoir of life on wartime Europe's frontline by a trailblazing female reporter is an 'unforgettable' (The Times) rediscovered classic.

This sensational 1941 memoir of life on wartime Europe's frontline by a trailblazing female reporter is an 'unforgettable' (The Times) rediscovered classic, introduced by Christina Lamb.

Paris as it fell to the Nazis
London on the first day of the Blitz
Berlin the day Germany invaded Poland
Madrid in the Spanish Civil War
Prague during the Munich crisis
Lapland as the Russians attacked
Moscow betrayed by the Germans
Virginia Cowles has seen it all.

As a pioneering female correspondent, she reported from the frontline of 1930s Europe into WWII always in the right place at the right time. Flinging off her heels under shellfire; meeting Hitler ('an inconspicuous little man'); gossiping with Churchill by his goldfish pond; dancing in the bomb-blasted Ritz ... Introduced by Christina Lamb, Cowles' incredible dispatches make you an eyewitness to the twentieth century as you have never experienced it before.

'A tour-de-force.' Daily Mail
'Amazingly brilliant.' New York Times
'Fascinating.' Justine Picardie
'Breathtaking.' Anna Funder
'Thrilling.' Sue Prideaux
'A long-overlooked classic that could not be timelier or more engrossing.' Paula McLain
'One of the best memoirs of war reporting ever written.' Caroline Moorehead

What readers are saying:
The queen of historical name-dropping

Holy cow! What a wonderful find!!

Most unexpectedly great book that I have read in years. Reads like a novel [but] this is real life.

The best book I've read this year ... Exquisitely written [day-to-day] drama of history ... Breathtakingly fresh.

I can't recommend this book enough. Cowles' voice and humanity are her greatest assets, but her willingness to be where the action was - and always find trouble - paid off.

A marvel. Her ability to capture anecdotes and dialogue that offer surprising insights into historic personages and events is a frequent source of wonder. It was difficult for me not to drive my family crazy wanting to read them quotes.

The intrepid Virginia Cowles was in the right places at the right times and connected to the right people. What a life she led!